On behalf of the Canadian Archaeological Association, we call for immediate action to support communities to locate the children who died at and went missing from Indian Residential Schools, as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action 71-76. We also call for immediate action to support Indigenous communities searching for lost loved ones who never came home from other schools, hospitals, and sanatoria across the land we now call Canada.

Content warning: This statement deals with child death, colonialism, residential schools, genocide and intergenerational trauma.

The recent discovery of unmarked child graves at the Kamloops Residential School is a painful reminder of the horrors experienced by First Nations, Métis and Inuit children at these institutions across the land we now call Canada. Our hearts go out to the many survivors and families affected by these losses, and the loss of the many other children whose graves have yet to be located.

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto invites applications for a Rebanks Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in North American Archaeology—Indigenous Ontario. Further information and details on how to apply are here: https://www.rom.on.ca/en/node/23867

Application deadline is June 1, 2021.